Excerpts from an interview with Director Institute
of Business Administration

By SHABBIR H. KAZMIAug 13 - 19, 2001

The Institute of Business Administration (IBA) is
the oldest business school in Pakistan. The graduates from IBA are
serving in local, multinational and transnational companies and even
abroad at senior positions. Most of the fresh graduates, when they
begin their professional career, are offered better salaries and more
responsible positions as compared to the graduates from other
institutions. This is a clear demonstration of the faith of employers
in IBA graduates. The Institute has often introduced some of the
courses in Pakistan for the first time. This has been made possible
only because the employers have been helping the faculty in preparing
improved course outlines. Not only that corporates are the biggest
employers of IBA graduates, these companies also support the institute
financially. Therefore, IBA has a greater responsibility and has to
work harder to come up to the expectations of the students and the
corporates.

In the recent past, after the establishment of a
large number of business schools, it has been said that these schools
must address 'quality' issue. I appreciate that PAGE has
also highlighted this in its cover stories published in last two
years. In my own humble opinion, quality of graduates depends on a
combination of a number of factors. These are: quality of entrants,
academic qualification and experience of faculty and curriculum. An
elaborate infrastructure also has a role to play. IBA has a glorious
past which also demands that enormous input must be made to maintain
the highest level of dissemination of knowledge. Learning is a two way
process. Even if an institution has the best of faculty and
infrastructure but students are less efficient or have lesser quest
for knowledge, the results cannot be very encouraging.

Fortunately, the students joining IBA have more
vivacity, get the guidance of qualified and experienced educators and
the Institute provides them better exposure to the real life. The
natural impact of all the above mentioned factors is superior quality
of IBA graduates. The constant interaction of graduates with the
Institute, their suggestions and recommendations help in knowing our
strengths and weaknesses. Based on this constant feedback the faculty
members have been improving upon the courses being taught and IBA has
been able to offer new courses.

As I have said earlier, IBA's emphasis has been on
dissemination of superior quality education in all the disciplines. To
further consolidate its position, IBA has prepared an ambitious
programme with specific attention on improving the quality of faculty
and improving infrastructure. IBA has already acquired full-time
services of 15 Ph Ds and sent another six of its faculty members for
doctorate programme abroad. IBA plans to send at least six faculty
members for doctorate programme every year. At the same time IBA's
doctorate programme is being revived. We aim at producing 15 Ph Ds,
under this programme, in next couple of years. This summer we invited
5 professors from the USA to teach at IBA and we will continue this
practice.

IBA has the facilities and it also emphasizes
dissemination of quality education in Information Technology (IT). We
are upgrading our Centre for Computer Studies and inducting additional
faculty for this purpose.

IBA is blessed with adequate financial resources.
We have been supported by a number of corporates including Citibank,
which is also the biggest employer of the MBAs specializing in
banking. Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) supports IBA financially as
well as in developing course outline and material for Export Marketing
programme.

To conclude I will say that IBA has embarked an
ambitious expansion plan. We wish to make IBA a leading Think-Tank of
Pakistan. We have already received 22,000 books from the USA, free of
cost, and much bigger shipments are expected in near future. We are
creating the facilities and infrastructure for the students. I,
personally, do not wish to treat the students like school going
children. They are grown ups and know their stakes in life. It is up
to them to make the best utilization of their time and resources at
their disposal. If they spend more time on acquiring knowledge and
equipping themselves better to face a very challenging tomorrow they
themselves will be the biggest beneficiary.